Thursday, November 24, 2022 ***HAPPY THANKSGIVING***
GIANTS FALL, ASIA RISES, & USA SETTLES FOR TIE
Nine are tied for 1st but will ARG or GER break the pool?
TURKEY DINNER @ HOME, CA (smt) -- With one match down for each team, a few teams made an announcement to not underestimate them because they don't come from Europe or South America as Asian Football Confederation's #53 C2-Saudi Arabia rallied with two early 2nd half goals in 6 minutes to stun two-time champion #3 C1-Argentina, 2-1, and AFC's #24 E4-Japan rallied with two late 2nd half goals in 9 minutes to defeat 4-time champion #11 E3-Germany, 2-1. ARG was riding a 36-match unbeaten streak and had not lost in their last 40 WC matches when scoring first. Big underdog African teams D4-Tunisia and F3-Morocco secured scoreless draws against top 12 European teams D3-Denmark and F4-Croatia, respectively. AFC's #28 H4-Korea Republic tied #14 H3-Uruguay in a match that saw no shots on goal (thus, ended nil-nil).
So considering KSA beat ARG and JPN beat GER, USA's 2-0 loss to JPN and 0-0 draw to KSA this fall right before the World Cup wasn't so bad after all. But B3-USA still has to be disappointed to commit a reckless tackle in the box to allow B4-Wales to tie it 1-1 with a PK in the 82'. CONCACAF didn't fare any better with #13 C3-Mexico not taking advantage of ARG's loss in a 0-0 draw with #26 C4-Poland, F2-Canada missing a PK and outshooting #2 F1-Belgium 21-9 but still losing 1-0, and E2-Costa Rica going shot-less in an embarrassing 7-0 loss to E1-Spain.
Besides ESP, B1-England (6-2 over B2-IR Iran), D1-France (4-1 over D2-Australia), and G1-Brazil (2-0 but could've been 5 over G2-Serbia) opened with a bang. Two African teams battled heading into the 2nd half scoreless but two late goals lifted A4-Netherlands over A3-Senegal 2-0, and an early second half goal gave G3-Switzerland a 1-0 win over G4-Cameroon. H1-Portugal and H2-Ghana exploded with a total of 5 goals in the second half with POR coming out on top, 3-2.
The first 16 matches saw no red cards but 9 penalty kicks (7 converted). Four matches featured 5 or more goals while four were scoreless draws. About 6 of 13 VAR reviews have resulted in confirming the ref's decision after some VAR-initiated soft PK calls early.
We are confirmed for 109 entries (still chasing a few payments, but they are people who have played before or are a direct reference to one) and nine are sitting in a tie for 1st place with 11 points (of 16 possible). Markofthebeast sits last with 4 points but at least he has BRA as his champ while 31 who have ARG as their champ have to sweat it out. While just 2 picked GER to win it all, 31 did have them in the semis, the 6th highest total behind BRA, ARG, FRA, ENG, BEL, and POR. In unique picks, Luis (26th-Tied, 9 pts) was the only one to get DEN-TUN draw and Kona Coast Uno (1st-T) the only one to pick JPN over GER. Not surprisingly, no one picked KSA over ARG (the only unanimous pick).
The best way to keep up with the pool is to follow @HWCI_Pools on Twitter or visit the #hwciWC hashtag (you don't need Twitter account to view) often for daily updates. Less often will be our Facebook group page (post comments or organize viewing parties) and then these newsletters every 4 days or so.
Ins & Outs - [16 Matches/5 Ties] - Goals: 41 (2.56/match) [Own: 0 (-), Subs: 9 (2-NED 90'+9, 3-SEN 65', 3-ENG 71', 3-ENG 90', 3-SEN 90'+13, 11-JPN 75', 11-JPN 83', 15-POR 80', 15-GHA 89'), 90+/120+: 2 (2-NED +9, 3-SEN +13), Extra Time: 0 (-)]... Scoring First: 8-3-1 [4 Nil-Nil ties (8-ARGvKSA, 5-AUSvFRA, 11-GERvJPN), 14-URUvKOR]... Leading at Half: 5-2-1 (8 ties; 8-ARG, 11-GER)... Shutout: 14 [1-QAT, 2-SEN, 6-DEN, 6-TUN, 7-MEX, 7-POL, 12-MAR, 12-CRO, 10-CRC, 9-CAN, 13-CMR, 14-URU, 14-KOR, 16-SRB]... PK: 7/9 [1-ECU 16', 3-SEN 90'+9, 4-WAL 82', 8-ARG 10', 7-pol (s) 58', 11-GER 33', 10-ESP 31', 9-can (s) 11', 15-POR 65']... Extra Time: 0 [-]... PSO 0 (-/-) [-]... Red Card (GF/GA): 0 (-)... Multiple Goals: 6 [Valencia 2 (1-ECU), Saka 2 (3-ENG), Taremi 2 (3-SEN), Giroud 2 (5-FRA), Torres 2 (10-ESP), Richarlison 2 (16-BRA)]... Zero SOG (Shots): 5 [1-QAT (5), 10-CRC (0), 14-URU (10), 14-KOR (6), 16-SRB (4)]... Goal Line Tech: 0 (-).. VAR (-Reversal(Taken Away), +Reversal(Added), =Confirmed, xNo Call): 13 [1-ECU xOff+{g-} 3', 4-ENG xFoul+{pk+IRN} 90'+10, 8-KSA xFoul+{pk+ARG} 6', 8-ARG xOff+{g-} 27', 6-TUN xHB= 90'+4, 7-MEX xFoul+{pk+POL} 54', 11-GER xHB= 22', 11-JPN Foul{pk}= 31', 11-GER xOff+{g-} 45'+4, 9-BEL xHB+{pk+CAN} 8', 9-BEL xFoul{pk}= 13', 9-BEL xFoul{pk}= 38', 15-GHA Foul{pk}= 62']... 58%+ Poss (w/in contest): 4 [3-ENGvIRN (72) W, 8-ARGvKSA (64) L, 11-GERvJPN (65) L, 10-ESPvCRC (74) W]... 20+ Shots (S/SOG/G): 4 [5-FRA (22/7/4) W, 11-GER (25/9/1) L, 9-CAN (21/4/0) L, 16-BRA (24/10/2)]... Breaks (>30 min): 0 [-]... Regions (Teams/R16/QF/SF/F/C): UEFA (13) 7-2-4, AFC (6) 2-3-1, CAF (5) 0-3-2, CONMEBOL (4) 2-1-1, CONCACAF (4) 0-2-2, OCEANIA (-)... Match Order of Play: RR: 1 | 3-2-4 | 8-6-7-5 | 12-11-10-9 | 13-14-15-16 | 17-18-19-20 | 21-22-23-24 | 25-26-27-28 | 29-30-31-32 | 35-36A-33-34B | 37-38D-39-40C | 41-42F-43-44E | 45-46H-47-48G | R16: 49-50 | 52-51 | 53-54 | 55-56 | QF: 58-57 | 60-59 | SF: 61 | 62 | 3rd: 63 | F: 64 ]...
SIDES 'N KICKS: Only BRA, ARG, FRA, and ENG were picked by everyone to make the Round of 16... Only TUN was not picked to make the R16... TUNvAUS was picked to be tied the most (39)... since we hit over 100 entries, there will be a 5th place prize for the first time... my jersey choices: 2020 CAN Home, 2021 USA Away, 2019 Centenary FRA, 2020 JPN Home, 2014 Centenary POR... there have already been X VAR decisions in the first 16 games (there were just 20 all of 2018)... ESP had 74% possession (even with new "in contest" % cutting into overall possession) and 5 of their 6 Euro 2020 matches also were 63% possession or better... only 11% of teams who lose their first game make the Round of 16 (since field expanded to 32 teams in 1998) while a win gets you in 84% of the time (59% advance after drawing their first match)... the LA Galaxy are hosting watch parties with Black Friday's ENG-USA match at Hermosa Beach Pier Plaza... Kevin L (KevLo) was inquiring about watch parties (Redondo Beach area) among us so we'll see - it's a great idea... yes, this issue's title is the title from Star Wars: Andor Episode 7, we'll see how long I can stick with the critically-acclaimed Andor titles (also have great quotes from the show I could use as well)... there were 3 scoreless draws in the first 9 games and 4 in the first 15 - there was just one all of 2018... ARG put the ball in the net 4 times in the first 35 minutes but 3 were called back for offsides (ARG had 10 overall)... if any teams qualify for the Round of 16 after their 2nd match, entries won't receive the 3 points until after their group has finished (e.g., if KSA wins, they advance to R16 but you will get the 3 points after their 3rd match win, lose, or draw)... I'm sure some people are going to try to attend all 64 matches since all stadiums are close by so it'll be interesting (with dual matches, you could attend one half and drive and attend most of the 2nd half of the other game)... Thursday's matches saw all four have scoreless first halves...
On Sunday, 56 of 109 entries picked ECU giving those one point... on Monday, 23 entries got all 3 matches correct while Markofthebeast missed all 3; he also is the only one with zero points while 13 have four points; 107 got ENG, 97 NED, and 19 picked the USA-WAL tie... on Tuesday, no one picked KSA as this was the only one of 48 group matches where all 109 picked one team; Luis was the one to correctly pick the DEN-TUN tie while 106 picked FRA and28 picked MEX-POL tie; 28 got two correct and Meli and Eggman2 went 0-4; Markofthebeast got his first win with FRA (was 0-7) to sit in last; 5 tied for 1st with 6 pts... on Wednesday, Kona Coast Uno was the only one to pick JPN while 14 picked the MAR-CRO tie; 101 picked ESP and 96 picked BEL; 12 entries went 3-1 while Firewire and Young Bloods went 0-4 today; 9 tied for 1st with 8 pts... on Turkey Thursday, nine entries are tied for 1st with 11 points (though not the same 9 from yesterday); ten went 4-0 today while 4 went 1-3; 85 picked SUI, 107 BRA, 102 POR, and 14 got the surprising URU-KOR tie.... NOTE: Unlucky and What Would Pep Do were inadvertently swapped in points (corrected 11/23); thanks for Keith J for finding this error and I now have an additional check when Excel decides to outsmart me...
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Go Red, White & Blue! Go Samurai Blue! Go Les Blues!...
Scott
HWCI circa 1990
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